thisdayinengadget
Latest
This day in Engadget: CES extravaganzas galore
Welcome to 'This day in Engadget', where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane. If you've not been living under a boulder for the past week or so, you've probably noticed that CES has been going on in glorious, illness-inducing Las Vegas, Nevada. The thing is, Engadget has been running this game for a long, long time, and though historically things are usually wrapping up around the 9th of January every year, the remnants, the wrap-ups, and the gadget hangovers are almost as fun to look back on as the show itself. So, as we wrap up a truly outstanding CES 2011, we thought we'd take a look back at previous CES wrap-ups, some big days, and some downright weird ones, in this nostalgic episode of This day in Engadget.
This day in Engadget: waiting in line comes to an end as the iPhone 3GS launches
Welcome to 'This day in Engadget', where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane. Try to recall if you will, June 19th of 2009, a rainy, ugly day, when the iPhone 3GS launched. People had pre-ordered, sure, but a few hundred people lined up at the cube in New York City anyway, and our very own Paul Miller braved the elements to document the proceedings for us lovingly. And here we are, in 2010, on the cusp of the launch of the iPhone 4, which has pre-sold about 600,000 units by last count. We've heard random reports of a few people already waiting in line (see the photo below of two early birds snapped by a reader in Santa Monica), but we're going to stay inside for now and take a look back at June 19th in the history of Engadget below. Also on this date: June 19th 2009: The Zune HD was confirmed to have a Tegra processor, Microsoft extended Windows XP's downgrade availability to 2011, and Nokia's N86 MP and N97 launched to great fanfare in the United Kingdom. June 19th 2008: The Mars Phoenix lander discovered ice on Mars, Chevrolet's Volt plug-in hybrid got priced at $40,000, and Dell launched its UltraSharp 2709W 27-inch LCD. June 19th 2007: A man was confirmed to have gotten two Zune tattoos, Sony's Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation, stepped down, and Apple was rumored to have a cheaper (and possibly smaller) iPhone in the pipeline. June 19th 2006: Taiwanese company Foxconn denied operating sweatshops, Steve Jobs was rumored to be fighting for $9.99 iTunes movie downloads, Verizon sued Vonage for patent infringement, and we caught sight of a Batman Begins casemod. June 19th 2005: Monks were reported to have started using hyperspectral imaging to retrieve ancient texts, and Engadget took a little aggression out on the mainstream media. June 19th 2004: We checked out the SciFi Museum in Seattle, Washington, caught sight of a 70 megapixel, panoramic camera, and were introduced to a product called the Pixie. [Thanks to Craig for the photo of the store in Santa Monica]
This day in Engadget: RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis talks about his first 'touch product'
Welcome to 'This day in Engadget', where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane. Earlier today, RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis laid down a doozy when he implied that full touchscreen phones aren't that popular -- but last year at this time (on April 16th!) he was scrambling to explain why the BlackBerry Storm failed to live up to high expectations. Speaking to Laptop, Mike explained that the Storm was RIM's first "touch product," explaining that "nobody gets it perfect out the door." RIM's head honchos are well known for their candor, so it's no surprise that he's now talking trash on tablets. Still, you have to admire any company that proclaims buggy software the new reality, right? Also on this date: April 16th, 2009: Apple hit back at Microsoft's Laptop Hunter ads, Nokia's profits were reported to have dropped 90 percent in the first quart of the year, a hellraising carrier pigeon was reported to have been caught red handed smuggling cellphone parts into a prison, and a new atomic clock claimed to be the most accurate in the world. April 16th, 2008: Microsoft hatched a Bruce Springsteen-laden promo vid for Vista, Republican lawmakers accused Google of gaming the 700Mhz auction, and a computer synthesizer gave voice to Neanderthal man. April 16th, 2007: A few screenshots of Leopard Beta 9a410 shocked the internet, Microsoft admitted it was possible the Xbox 360 was scratchin' discs, Vonage admitted it was pretty much screwed, and the RED ONE got a hands-on. April 16th, 2006: Noelle the Robot gave birth (sort of), a Darmouth professor was reported to have invented instant de-icing film, and the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player got disassembled, possibly predicting its death. April 16th, 2005: Future-minded peeps started thinking past Tiger, the AirScooter II was shown off, and a disgusting Hello Kitty (seriously, this thing couldn't have been officially licensed) BE@RBRICK set was unleashed. April 16th, 2004 : Phil Torrone showed us how to read RSS feeds on an iPod, the man behind Nokia's N-Gage got interviewed, and mobile social networking seemed like something that could take off.
This day in Engadget: Microsoft unleashes a laptop hunter
Welcome to 'This day in Engadget', where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane. On March 27th, 2009, Microsoft outed the first of a new series of ads called the "Laptop Hunters," starting off its campaign with Lauren, who wanted a powerful computer for less than a thousand dollars. We poked a bit of fun at the ad (well, mostly we poked fun at Lauren herself), but it signaled that Microsoft was taking on its main competitor -- Apple -- where it hurt them most: pricing. Of course, this was pre-Windows 7, which proved to be a major success by any metric, but certainly against the much-maligned Vista. Apple later called to complain about the ads -- saying that the pricing was no longer correct -- and Microsoft updated the ads, though Microsoft COO Tim Cook Kevin Turner had something to say about the size of the price cuts. Also on this date: March 27th, 2009: Tesla's CEO said that model S Roadster wasn't actually that expensive (and we laughed at him), the iPhone 3G became available contract free, and Palm issued a takedown for TealOS (the fake WebOS for older Palm devices. March 27th, 2008: NVIDIA drivers took the heat for causing 30 percent of Windows Vista crashes, Microsoft Surface was reportedly headed for consumers in 2011, the PlayStation Network had a major security situation on its hands, the OLPC was lovingly overclocked, and a MacBook Air got pwnd. March 27th, 2007: The as-yet-unreleased first gen iPhone was waved around at CTIA, AT&T sued NASCAR over a paint job, Netflix founder Reed Hastings joined the board of Microsoft, and Texas Instruments showed of its tiny little DLP projector. March 27th, 2006: Media snacker Robert Scoble showed off Microsoft's Auxiliary Display on video, Denmark was reported to be joining forces with France in asking Apple to open its DRM, and photos of the supposed iRiver E10 got shown off. March 27th, 2005: Sony was reportedly going to be forced to stop selling its Dual Shock Controllers over patent infringement, TiVo was said to be testing banner ads during fast forwards, and Palm's Tungsten E2's specs were finally revealed. March 27th, 2004: Two men in Italy were banned from ever using cellphones again after using them to harass ex-girlfriends, some Palm video game emulators got shown off, and something called the Simputer finally came into existence.
This day in Engadget: Steve Jobs calls for an end to DRM
Welcome to 'This day in Engadget', where we crack open the archives and take a whimsical look back at the memories and moments of our storied past. Please join us on this trip down random access memory lane. On February 6th, 2007 Apple CEO Steve Jobs published his "Thoughts on Music" letter. iTunes was by then the major player in online distribution, and the iPod had become the widely recognized face of portable music. DRM was controversial and pretty much universally disdained, and Jobs took the opportunity to write a letter pinpointing what he thought were the three options moving forward in the digital music distribution model. Essentially, he felt Apple (and the rest of the music loving world) had three choices: stay the course (DRM intact), move to the company's FairPlay licensing model, or envision a future which was DRM-free. Jobs made no bones about it: he and Apple hoped to "embrace" the end of DRM (under pressure from the EU, of course). Arguing that DRM hadn't stopped piracy, he conveniently called for the major labels to license their music to Apple DRM-free. On January 9th of 2009, Apple did announce that some of the music in its iTunes store would be purchasable DRM-free, though it still makes use of FairPlay for apps and video. Jobs will have to continue fighting the good fight, we suppose. Also on this date: February 6th, 2009: The Kindle 2 seemed like it might be leaking (it was), Roku moved into private beta with Amazon Video on Demand, and Microsoft denied it was making a phone. February 6th, 2008: Ford announced it would offer its F-150 with an in-dash computer (amongst other things), a bunch of undersea cables were reportedly cut leaving much of the world with no internet and no Engadget, and the Xbox 360 HD DVD player hit an all-time low price of $130. February 6th, 2007: Apple asked the FCC to keep its iPhone secrets confidential until the 15th of June, Hasbro recalled nearly a million Easy Bake Ovens to the dismay of little girls everywhere, and Sony Ericsson officially outed its W880 (Ai) Walkman musicphone. February 6th, 2006: The PSP was officially rumored to be getting both email and GPS, LG outed its F3000 cellphone which went 'vroom vroom' whenever you got a text, and Mobile ESPN went live. February 6th, 2005: The world was a flutter with the news of how to unlock a GSM Treo 650, while signing up for a year of Napster to Go brought with it a free iRiver H10. February 6th, 2004: Hey, Engadget didn't exist yet!
